Joel 2:12–27

A Call to Repentance

¹²“And even now,” declares^o Yahweh,

“return to me with all your heart,

with fasting, and weeping, and wailing.”

¹³Rend your hearts^p and not your garments,

and return to Yahweh your God,

because he is gracious and compassionate,

slow to anger^q and great in loyal love,

and relenting from harm.

¹⁴Who knows whether he will turn and relent,

and leave a blessing behind him,

an offering and a libation,

for Yahweh your God?

¹⁵Blow the trumpet^r in Zion,

sanctify a fast, call an assembly;

¹⁶gather the people, consecrate the assembly;

assemble the elders, gather the children,

even those who are breast-feeding;

let the bridegroom come out from his private room,

and the bride from her canopy.

¹⁷Between the colonnade and the altar,

let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep.

And let them say, “Take pity, Yahweh, on your people.

Do not make your inheritance a reproach,

a byword among the nations.

Why should they say among the nations,

‘Where is their God?’ ”

The Response and Promise of Yahweh

¹⁸Then Yahweh became jealous for his land

and took pity on his people.

¹⁹And Yahweh answered and said to his people,

“Look at me, I am sending to you

grain, new wine, and olive oil,

and you will be satisfied by it.

I will not give you over any more

as a disgrace among the nations.

²⁰The northerners^s

I will remove from you;

I will drive them to a desert

and desolate land,

its^t front to the eastern sea,

and its rear into the western sea;

its stench and odor will rise up

because he^u has done great things.

²¹Do not fear, O land,

rejoice and be glad,

because Yahweh has done great things.

²²Do not fear, wild animals of the field,

because the pastures of the desert have put forth new green shoots,

because the tree has produced its fruit,

the fig tree and the vine

have yielded their produce.

²³Be glad, O children of Zion,

be glad and rejoice in Yahweh your God,

because he has given for you

the autumn rains for your righteousness,^v

and he has poured down^w for you rainwater,

the autumn and spring rains, as before.

²⁴The threshing floors will be full with grain,

and the vats will overflow

with new wine and olive oil.

²⁵I will repay you the years

that the locust has eaten,

the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,

my mighty troops that I sent against you.

²⁶And you will eat abundantly and be satisfied,

and praise the name of Yahweh your God,

who has dealt with you wondrously.^x

My people will never be ashamed.^y

²⁷And you will know that I am in the midst of Israel,

and I am Yahweh,

your God, and there is no other.

My people will never be ashamed again.^z